There was really no way I could do a Cocoa Coconut theme and not do a lip balm. Cocoa Coconut practically begs to be lip-balm-ized! Since we’re in the midst of ultra-dry wintery weather right now, I opted to make this a Cocoa Coconut Sticky Lip Balm because when it is super dry and my lips are chapped and angry, sticky lip balm is what works. Its thick, tacky consistency means it stays on your lips, trapping in moisture and giving the delicate skin there a chance to heal. While I love a slippy, glossy lip balm, they just don’t offer the same level of winter protection as a sticky lip balm. If you suffer from extra dry lips in the winter, I highly recommend giving this DIY a try!

How to Make Cocoa Coconut Sticky Lip Balm

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This simple lip balm is comprised of just four ingredients, so I really don’t recommend making any substitutions. The first one is beeswax; I used some beautiful unrefined, honey-scented beeswax that I purchased in rural Manitoba several years ago. I absolutely adore purchasing beeswax and honey straight from the beekeepers at local farmers’ markets and highly recommend it if you get the chance. I like beeswax as the wax in lip balms for ultra-dry weather because of its unique creamy/tacky feel. Beeswax is truly essential to the efficacy of this lip balm. To learn more about different waxes and how they impact the feel of our formulations (especially at high concentrations), please review the many guides I’ve shared.

 

Ingredient #2 is slippy, fragrant coconut oil. The thin, oily feel of coconut oil is a perfect foil to hard, sticky, grippy beeswax, softening and lubricating it to the point of being apply-able. I used Baraka’s “traditional” coconut oil, which is processed with heat (vs cold-pressed) and has a fantastic roasty-toasty coconutty scent that’s richer and warmer than regular virgin coconut oil. Either virgin or traditional would work beautifully here, but I wanted that enhanced coconutty scent from the traditional variety in this lip balm.

Ingredient #3 is luscious, brittle, oh-so-delicious-smelling cocoa butter. Scent-wise, we’ve got warm honey from the beeswax, toasty coconut from the coconut oil, and rich chocolate from the cocoa butter. It’s a fan-frikkin’-tastic scent blend. YUM.

The last ingredient is just a wee bit of vitamin E to delay rancidity. If you wanted to incorporate a bit of a lip-safe essential oil or flavour oil you could drop 0.5% of the coconut oil and add 0.5% essential oil with the vitamin E.

Because of the firm, sticky consistency of this lip balm, I really recommend packaging it in tubes rather than tins. Not only is it much easier to apply, but you won’t end up with a sticky finger (and these days the idea of rubbing my finger on my mouth while I’m out-and-about is even less appealing than usual).

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Cocoa Coconut Sticky Lip Balm

Heated phase
8.625g | 34.5% traditional virgin coconut oil (USA / Canada)
5g | 20% cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
11.25g | 45% beeswax (USA / Canada)

Cool down phase
0.125g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)

Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.

Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

While the heated phase melts, set out your lip balm tubes, vitamin E, and scale so you can quickly add the vitamin E and then pour the lip balm.

After about 20–30 minutes everything should be completely melted through. Remove the water bath from the heat, remove the measuring cup from the water bath, and dry it off with a dishtowel. Set the measuring cup on a towel or hot pad to insulate it from the counter and stir the mixture with a flexible silicone spatula to combine everything.

Quickly add the cool down phase, stir to incorporate, and pour the melted lip balm into lip balm tubes (you could use tins if you wanted to, but I don’t love having sticky lip balm on my fingers). Leave the tubes on the counter to set up.

Once the lip balms have solidified and cooled down you can cap the tubes. I recommend wiping them down with some paper towel wetted with a bit of rubbing alcohol to remove any oil so your labels stick to the tubes. Label the tubes, and you’re done!

Use as you’d use any lip balm. Enjoy!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this lip balm does not contain any water, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a two years before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.

  • As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 25g, which is enough to fill five standard lip balm tubes.
  • To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
  • The only substitutions I can recommend in this formulation are using refined versions of the ingredients rather than unrefined. If you change anything else you are in re-development territory.
  • If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this (I would reduce the coconut oil to make room for an essential oil or flavour oil).
  • If you’re looking for a sticky vegan lip balm, check out this formulation.
  • If you’re looking for a glossier lip balm with similar ingredients, check out this formulation.

Gifting Disclosure

The coconut oil and cocoa butter were gifted by Baraka Shea Butter. Links to Baraka Shea Butter are affiliate links.